


From the Dirt

by Noteventhat (Facialteeth)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Bisexual Jace Wayland, Blood, Dark Themes with a Fluffy Plot, Domestic Fluff, Falling In Love, First Meetings, Graveyard Keeper AU, Graveyard Keeper Jace, Graveyard Keeper Meliorn, Mundane Jace, Mundane Meliorn, bodies, jace's pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:53:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28713855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Facialteeth/pseuds/Noteventhat
Summary: When Meliorn dragged Jace back to the graveyard, Jace had no clue what he was getting himself into but in the end, he couldn't really complain.A soft AU about Jace and Meliorn tending to a graveyard and loving each other.
Relationships: Meliorn/Jace Herondale
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10





	From the Dirt

**Author's Note:**

> This work is inspired by Graveyard Keeper, if anyone has ever played that game. This is by far the weirdest thing I've ever written but I kind of love it. There's actually seven more pages to this AU but it's all unconnected drabbles that don't form any kind of a story, so I'm posting the part that seems complete and has a small plot to it. 
> 
> Hello the three people that will click on this thing. I hope you enjoy.

Working in the Graveyard was hard work, harder work than most people assumed it was. When Jace came into town and was initially offered the job, even he’d underestimated it. He thought it would be easy but now, Jace knew it was anything but.

At the time, he’d been desperate for a place to stay. He had no money. He had no job. He had very few options available to him and he had no clue what he was going to do. That’s when Jace just happened to come across Meliorn, who’d gone into one of the shops to purchase some supplies and then come out and found Jace’s sorry form standing outside.

For some reason, Jace’s dirty tangled hair and exhausted face caught the man’s attention. Maybe, it had just been because the village they were in was fairly small and Jace was new but regardless of the reason why, Meliorn had paused and after a moment of staring at him, he asked where Jace had come from.

Jace had looked up, frowned for a moment and taken in the man’s long braided hair, the way his green and tan tunic was tied rather elegantly around his waist and even the delicate leaf, which had been painted onto the man’s cheek. He was beautiful and interesting - two things Jace didn’t believe he was at all and certainly not in the state he’d been in that day. Jace hadn’t understood why this man had found anything about him appealing enough to stop and speak to him.

“Away,” Jace murmured at last, his answer not particularly compelling or forthcoming.

Meliorn’s eyes had flickered up and then down Jace’s body before he’d hummed in response. “Well, do you have anywhere to stay, awayer?” Meliorn asked at last.

Jace shook his head no and without any other prompting, Meliorn shoved the bag he was carrying into Jace’s arms - a bag of heavy fertilizer that Jace struggled to shift in his grasp and hold tighter, so he wouldn’t drop it. “Come then,” Meliorn said before he was turning away to walk down the stone path, away from the shop he’d just left. “Maybe, you can be of assistance to me,” he called over his shoulder.

Jace didn’t know what else to do besides follow. It wasn’t as if he had anything better to be doing. “You didn’t introduce yourself,” Jace said, as he struggled to catch up to the man’s quick footsteps.

“Meliorn,” he’d replied without turning.

 _Meliorn-_ Jace repeated in his head. What an interesting and pretty name for such an interesting and pretty person. “I’m Jace,” Jace said, even though he hadn’t been asked.

Meliorn hummed softly, not even looking back and as Jace followed. For a moment, Jace wondered exactly what he was getting himself into and then, he wondered if there was anything he could be walking towards that would make him not follow someone as captivating as Meliorn.

Apparently, there wasn’t.

Meliorn led Jace to the edge of town, where there lay a big decrepit graveyard, with weeds overflowing onto the gravestones and a fence that looked as if it had been completely taken over by nature. Jace might think the graveyard was abandoned, if couldn’t see that some of the stones were new and some of the dirt from the plots was recently overturned.

Meliorn led Jace towards the back, where they came across a small stone building half buried in a hill. Meliorn pushed the door open and gestured for Jace to walk into the cold damp place. Jace had moved inside without thinking, even though the room deeply unsettled him. He felt as if he was about to be locked in the dark alone. He was thankful when Meliorn moved in behind him.

Meliorn closed the door and then in the complete darkness, he turned and lit a candle, lighting the room in a soft orange, flicking glow. Jace peered around, startled as hell when he found himself staring at dried blood that had been dripped across the floor and what was unmistakably a body laid out on a metal table, covered in a pale sheet that did nothing to hide the shape.

“That’s a body,” Jace said, shocked.

Meliorn didn’t even look over to him. “Yes,” he said simply, before he was pointing towards a corner, where Jace could see some other supplies. “Put the bag over there,” Meliorn commanded.

Jace finally ripped his eyes away from the body and moved to do as he was told, before turning back towards the strange man and frowning. “Why am I here?” He asked.

Meliorn had moved towards the body now and Jace paled when he saw the man unceremoniously pull the sheet down, revealing the body Jace had known was there but certainly hadn’t wanted to see. “You need a place to stay, right?” Meliorn called over his shoulder, as he poked at the body, checking for something Jace couldn’t guess at.

Jace nodded and then jolted to respond when he realized Meliorn wasn’t looking towards him. “Yes.”

Meliorn finally straightened out again, looking away from the body to glance back to Jace again. “Good, I need help and I have a spare bed. It all works out.” Meliorn tossed the sheet back over the body before he turned, wiping his hands on his pants as if to get rid of something. “Grab that,” Meliorn said, already moving towards the door.

Jace froze. “Grab what?” He asked after him, appalled and already knowing what Meliorn was talking about. He knew what Meliorn meant. He was just hoping he was wrong.

“You know,” Meliorn replied simply before he left the room, shining the bright light from outside in for a brief moment before the door was closing, leaving Jace alone with the body in the dark.

Jace jolted to grab the body, grimacing and trying desperately to keep the sheet covering it as he tossed it onto his shoulder and tried to pretend it was nothing but a bag of flour. Jace practically ran to the door, desperate to get outside into the light again.

Outside, Jace walked to Meliorn, who was now standing over an empty section of the graveyard. He froze a few steps away, still holding the body over his shoulder as he waited for some kind of instruction.

“Put that down,” Meliorn said simply, pointing to the ground. “Dig here, about five feet down or the animals will smell it. Tell me when you’re done. I have fruit trees to tend to.”

Meliorn turned without another word, starting to leave the cemetery and head up the road, towards a small cabin Jace could see in the distance. Outside, there were in fact blooming fruit trees, all surrounding a garden that seemed as if it was half crops and half flowers and weeds. It was over grown, out of control and much like the graveyard, it was untended and yet, everything there seemed to be thriving together.

Jace stood and watched him leave for a moment before he put the body down, flinching at the sound it made as it hit the ground. Jace reached for the shovel that was a few feet away and after a second of hesitation, he shoved the end into the dirt and started to dig.

That was the first day he ever worked in the graveyard and when he was done, hours later, he was dripping with sweat and covered in dirt but the body had been buried, just like Meliorn had asked. After, Jace made his way towards Meliorn’s cabin and hesitantly made his way inside, finding Meliorn standing in a small kitchen, washing the fruit he’d plucked in a bucket.

There was the smell of fresh baked bread and pie in the air, mixing with the smell of flowers that Jace could see blooming in every available space they could be. Meliorn turned to look at him, laughing softly when he saw how dirty Jace was.

“There’s a creek out back,” Meliorn said, already turning back towards his fruit. “Go clean up.”

Jace turned and walked back outside, making his way around the cabin and walking until he found the creek to wash himself in the cold water. After that, he just lived with Meliorn. He worked nearly everyday in the graveyard. Meliorn tended to their crops, made bread and pies, some for them to sell and some for them to eat, while Jace worked in the graveyard, burying bodies when they came, fixing the stones that needed it, carving out new grave markers and doing anything else that involve intense physical labor.

It wasn’t that Meliorn _couldn’t_ do the physical labor. He’d done it all alone before Jace had come but now that Jace was there, Meliorn simply didn’t subject himself to it. He didn’t have to. He had Jace to do it and Jace couldn’t really complain. Meliorn gave him a place to sleep. He made delicious food and the man wasn’t bad company either.

Besides, Jace got over how freaked out he was by the bodies quickly and eventually, it became mundane to deal with them and lug them around like they were nothing. He’d lay bodies in their graves and then, he’d bug Meliorn to give him a bit of whatever he was cooking before he’d go clean up.

All and all, Jace could have found himself in a far worse situation, with people far less compelling than Meliorn was. It was only a bonus that Jace started to fall in love with Meliorn soon after and it was only a miracle that Meliorn returned the feeling, loving Jace like Jace didn’t think anyone ever had before.

Dealing with bodies all day was well worth it for that.


End file.
